When Subway's Footlong isn't a foot long (more like 11 inches)

A photo of a Subway Footlong sandwich shorter than a foot is causing controversy for the giant sandwich chain.

A photo of a Subway Footlong sandwich shorter than a foot is causing controversy for the giant sandwich chain. (Matt Corby / Facebook)

Tiffany Hsu

Subway is facing an outcry over a single inch.

The giant sandwich chain is still dealing with peeved consumers after an Australian customer alleged, with photographic evidence, that the company’s popular Footlong sub doesn’t live up to its name.

Instead, Matt Corby’s sandwich was 11 inches long, according to a photo he posted on Subway’s Facebook page positioning his mass of tomatoes, onions, olives and bread next to a tape measure along with the message “subway pls respond.”

The takeaway? Size matters to a lot of Subway customers.

Hordes of copycat photos have appeared all over the social networking site, including one featuring a sandwich compared to a human foot in a sock (the sandwich wins in length).

“I won't be going back to Subway until you either drop the words ‘foot long’ in your advertising or add the inch to the sandwich,” wrote Facebook user David Moran on the company’s profile. “False advertising.”

The New York Post bought seven Footlongs in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens and found four that came in under the advertised mark.

Facebook user Saiya Mahariel, who said she used to work at a Subway location, came to the chain’s defense.

“It’s not easy making the bread perfect,” she wrote on the company’s profile. “So please ease up a bit.”

McDonald’s, which sells a burger called the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, specifies on its website that the sandwich weighs 4 ounces (or a quarter of a pound) “before cooking.”

On its Facebook page this week, restaurant chain Applebee’s posted an image of one of its seafood dishes with the caption “We BELIEVE low calorie doesn’t have to take shortcuts.”